FCC secures contract in Dallas suburb

The University Park (Texas) City Council has awarded Madrid-based FCC, a global environmental services, infrastructure and water management group, a five-year service contract for the treatment and marketing of the city’s recyclables. The materials will be processed at a single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) located in Dallas that is currently being constructed by FCC and is due to open Jan. 1, 2017.

The city of University Park in Dallas County has a population of approximately 24,000 residents. FCC will collect and process approximately 3,200 tons of recyclables per year from residents. The service commencement date of the contract is Jan. 2, 2017, with a possible extension for an additional five years.

FCC was awarded the contract to build the state-of-the-art MRF on the McCommas Bluff Landfill site in southern Dallas in November 2015, with construction having started earlier this year. The turnover volume for the plant will be $300 million dollars over the course of its lifetime, the company says.

According to FCC, the plant will use the latest sorting and classification techniques, including artificial vision, as well as optical and gravimetric sorting machines. It will recycle and give thousands of tons of paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metals produced by the citizens of Dallas back to the market, thereby following circular economy principles, states FCC.

Inigo Sanz, CEO of FCC Environmental Services, the U.S. subsidiary of FCC Group, says, “FCC has a growing presence in the U.S. waste sector and, following recent awards in Orange County and Dallas, securing the University Park contract is another important step for us. By processing the recyclable material at our state-of-the-art recycling facility, we will make a huge difference to the management of waste for the local community.”

Last month FCC received the P3 Bulletin Award for the single-stream MRF on the McCommas Bluff Landfill site in southern Dallas in the category Best Waste/Energy/Water Project. The P3 model that FCC proposed stood out because it was the highest scored in all areas: technical, educational, operational and financial, guaranteeing a positive financial value to the city along the contract term, the judges say. The judges for the award were enthusiastic because the project provides a model for the U.S. for waste reduction in the future, offering a strong and efficient solution to a potentially growing problem in the country, FCC says.

FCC Group has more than 100 years of experience in environmental services. It currently serves more than 53 million people in 13 countries, with a network of more than 120 recycling facilities and 10 existing waste-to-energy projects with a capacity over 2.6 million tons and 300 megawatts of power output.